No Wonder Our Mental Health Service Is In A Mess…

A mental health worker who twice went drink-driving when acting as a designated driver for her friends has been banned from the roads for almost two years.

I rather think she’s confused as to what the term ‘designated driver’ actually means…

And yes, you read that right. Twice!

She was on bail at the time having been arrested for drink-driving two months earlier and was awaiting the result of a blood alcohol test.

Penalty? Well, nothing at all, really:

In addition to a 22-month driving ban, she was given a 12-month community order with 40 hours’ unpaid work. She was also told to pay £170 prosecution costs.

You will have to hope the authority for which she works takes a good, hard look at her powers of judgement.

Her solicitor, Mark Thompson, said Fairclough was on her way home from the funeral of a friend who had died unexpectedly when she was stopped in Haxby Road. The death had caused Fairclough anxiety and she was on anti-depressants.

The court was told she had not thought about the effects of the amount of alcohol she had drunk at the funeral.

Or, presumably, about whether they should be mixed with alcohol!

Fairclough told a probation officer the bar she had been at that day had been offering two drinks for the price of one, so she had taken up the offer.

/facepalm She clearly learned a few techniques for court from her work:

Mr Thompson said Fairclough was remorseful for her actions.

Well, of course she was!